Healthcare’s ongoing push towards clinically integrated networks (CINs), health information exchanges (HIEs), and value-based care continues to drive consolidation across the industry. At the same time, providers need allies to help shoulder new technical and financial burdens. As a result, the purchasing power of affiliated facilities stands to reach new heights.
Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) managing the buying needs of healthcare providers help hospitals reign in some of that spending by leveraging the collective purchasing power of member facilities to negotiate savings on purchased goods and services.
About 97% of hospitals have an affiliated GPO, and research from the Healthcare Supply Chain Association (HSCA) suggests that those GPOs decrease the cost of healthcare by as much as $55B each year.
Below, we list the top 10 GPOs by the number of staffed beds of their affiliated hospitals, according to Definitive Healthcare data.
10 GPOs with the most affiliated staffed beds
| Rank | Purchasing organization | Definitive ID | State | Number of beds |
| 1 | Vizient | 550059 | TX | 452,680 |
| 2 | Premier Inc | 542095 | NC | 334,321 |
| 3 | HealthTrust Performance Group | 542097 | TN | 184,322 |
| 4 | Cardinal Health | 579888 | OH | 180,939 |
| 5 | McKesson Pharmaceutical | 576886 | CA | 142,839 |
| 6 | Cencora | 579887 | PA | 137,659 |
| 7 | Premier - ASCEND | 1035086 | NC | 96,191 |
| 8 | Acurity | 542102 | NY | 45,153 |
| 9 | Sourcewell | 579920 | MN | 38,505 |
| 10 | Children’s Hospital Association | 542093 | KS | 38,306 |
Fig. 1 Data from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView platform. Data accessed July 2024.
Which GPO has the greatest number of staffed beds?
Vizient has the greatest number of staffed beds with more than 452,000. Premier Inc comes in second with over 334,000 staffed beds, followed by HealthTrust Performance Group (HPG) with about 184,000 staffed beds. Together, Vizient, Premier Inc, and HealthTrust Performance Group (HPG) account for 80% of the total staffed beds across the top 10 GPOs. Across the top 10 GPOs, there are 1.5 million total staffed beds and an average of 165,000 staffed beds.
Healthcare consolidation and GPOs
Healthcare’s consolidation trend also impacts the GPO market. There is a growing trend of GPOs targeting acquisitions in specialty healthcare areas, including specialty pharma. In 2024, Cardinal Health acquired Specialty Networks, a multi-specialty group purchasing and practice enhancement organization, for $1.2 billion. There have also been some strategic divestitures. In 2023, Premier Inc. sold its non-GPO business to Omnia Partners in an $800 million deal to focus more on its core healthcare business.
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